Agent-Skills.md

Agent Skills: GitHub CLI (gh) — Setup and Usage

Install and configure the GitHub CLI (gh) for AI agent environments where gh may not be pre-installed and git remotes use local proxies instead of github.com. Use when gh command not found, shutil.which returns None, need GitHub API access for issues or PRs or releases or workflow runs, or repository operations fail with 'failed to determine base repo' error. Provides auto-install script with SHA256 verification, GITHUB_TOKEN auth with anonymous fallback, and the required -R flag pattern for proxy environments. Covers project management via GitHub Projects V2, milestones via REST API, issue lifecycle templates, and label taxonomy management.

UncategorizedID: Jamie-BitFlight/claude_skills/gh

Repository

Jamie-BitFlight/claude_skills
Jamie-BitFlightLicense: MIT
6110

Install this agent skill to your local

pnpm dlx add-skill https://github.com/Jamie-BitFlight/claude_skills/tree/HEAD/.claude/skills/gh

Skill Files

Browse the full folder contents for gh.

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.claude/skills/gh/SKILL.md

Skill Metadata

Name
gh
Description
"Install and configure the GitHub CLI (gh) for AI agent environments where gh may not be pre-installed and git remotes use local proxies instead of github.com. Use when gh command not found, shutil.which returns None, need GitHub API access for issues or PRs or releases or workflow runs, or repository operations fail with 'failed to determine base repo' error. Provides auto-install script with SHA256 verification, GITHUB_TOKEN auth with anonymous fallback, and the required -R flag pattern for proxy environments. Covers project management via GitHub Projects V2, milestones via REST API, issue lifecycle templates, and label taxonomy management."

GitHub CLI (gh) — Setup and Usage

Purpose

Ensures the GitHub CLI (gh) is available and provides correct usage patterns for AI agents operating in environments where gh may not be pre-installed and where git remotes point to local proxies instead of github.com.

When to Use

  • gh command not found or shutil.which("gh") returns None
  • Need to interact with GitHub API (issues, PRs, releases, workflows)
  • Repository remote does not point to github.com (proxy environments)
  • Need authenticated GitHub operations with GITHUB_TOKEN
  • Managing GitHub Issues, Projects V2, Milestones, or Labels

Installation

If gh is not installed, run the setup script:

uv run .claude/skills/gh/scripts/setup_gh.py

The script:

  1. Checks if gh is already installed via shutil.which
  2. Detects platform (Linux, macOS, Windows) and architecture
  3. Fetches the latest release from https://github.com/cli/cli/releases/latest
  4. Downloads the correct archive with SHA256 verification from checksums file
  5. Extracts and installs the binary to a writable PATH directory
  6. Uses GITHUB_TOKEN for authenticated requests; falls back to anonymous if auth fails (401/403)

CLI options:

--force          Reinstall even if already at latest version
--dry-run        Show what would happen without installing
--bin-dir        Override install directory (default: auto-detect from PATH)
--detect-only    Detect owner/repo, refresh .dh/config.yaml and gh-examples.md, print examples to stdout. No network calls.

Authentication

GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable provides automatic authentication. No manual gh auth login needed.

# Verify authentication
gh auth status

If GITHUB_TOKEN is set, gh authenticates automatically for all API calls.

Repository Detection

<repo_detection>

Git remote points to a local proxy (127.0.0.1), NOT github.com. Every gh command fails without explicit repo specification:

failed to determine base repo: none of the git remotes configured for this
repository point to a known GitHub host.

RULE: Pass -R (or --repo) on EVERY gh command:

gh <command> -R <owner/repo>

This applies to ALL gh subcommands: pr, issue, run, api, release, project, etc.

</repo_detection>

Common Commands

!uv run --script .claude/skills/gh/scripts/setup_gh.py --detect-only 2>/dev/null

Automation — Python Script

For multi-step operations (label setup, milestone creation, project init, issue import), use:

# Full project setup
uv run .claude/skills/gh/scripts/github_project_setup.py setup

# Labels only
uv run .claude/skills/gh/scripts/github_project_setup.py labels

# Milestone management
uv run .claude/skills/gh/scripts/github_project_setup.py milestone list
uv run .claude/skills/gh/scripts/github_project_setup.py milestone create --title "v1.0" --due 2026-03-31

# Issue management
uv run .claude/skills/gh/scripts/github_project_setup.py issue list --priority p1
uv run .claude/skills/gh/scripts/github_project_setup.py issue create --title "feat: X" --priority-label priority:p1

The script delegates all GitHub operations to the authenticated gh CLI — no separate API tokens or Python HTTP clients needed.

Reference Files

  • labels.md — Label taxonomy (priority, type, status), color codes, bulk setup
  • milestones.md — Milestone CRUD via REST API, naming conventions
  • projects-v2.md — GitHub Projects V2 commands, custom fields, GraphQL queries
  • issue-stories.md — Issue as story format, body template, lifecycle, backlog item field mapping

Sources